Public Life

Chicago. -- Many people express amazement at the bile President Clinton is subjected to these days. This goes far beyond the political criticism we have been used to in recent years. Talk-show journals record that he is the object of most of the vituperative calls made to right-wing radio hosts. Jerry Falwell distributes a television cassette, along with lurid ads for it, that accuses the president of murder.A newsletter being distributed is called ''The Clinton Body Count,'' alleging that hit squads killed critics of the president in Alabama.

Newspapers are in trouble. Not just because of the Internet and advertising and subscriptions. But because, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll, only 28 percent of Americans think that journalists contribute a lot to society's well being. That's pretty bad considering that journalists like to think of themselves as guardians of democracy. In other business enterprises, such public disdain would be a cause for alarm. But newspapers are different. Criticize journalistic professionalism, and you're likely to hear a thing or two about the importance of the First Amendment, or my favorite catch-all self-justification: If people are unhappy with us, "we must be doing something right!"

WASHINGTON -- He could be secretary of state. He could head a foundation or university or philanthropic organization. He could travel the country making speeches. And, even though he insisted it was not an option, he could still change his mind and take the No. 2 spot on a Republican ticket next year.When Colin L. Powell called his closest friends to his home Monday night to tell them it was over, one of them told him, no, it was just the beginning of the next chapter of his life.And in the post-presidential-frenzy phase of his American journey, as invitations for positions and public appearances begin to pour in, the retired general with the almost limitless popularity faces almost limitless options.

One of the interesting aspects of public life (even for those of us retired from public life) is the frequency with which total strangers engage me in political conversation. Most of these unscheduled encounters are pleasant. They can break out anywhere. But it is the variety of self-descriptions (and disclaimers) that make these conversations so entertaining. Not every discussion includes a qualifier; about a third of folks self-identify as core partisans. Unsurprisingly, most of the core Democrats love the president; their counterparts on the right possess a profound dislike of Mr. Obama.

WASHINGTON -- Delivering on a promise to social conservatives, House Republicans are considering a "religious liberty" constitutional amendment aimed at reversing decades of court rulings and government policies that they say have produced "an extraordinary secularization of American public life."Although the proposed amendment has yet to be drafted, its purpose would be to pave the way for the return of prayer to public schools, a practice ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1962, and to allow religious-oriented displays in public places -- also banned by the courts.

The clock is just about to strike 5:30 p.m. in County Council candidate Linda Gilligan's kitchen when a visitor says she's leaving so the family can eat dinner.Gilligan's husband, Brian, looks up, puzzled, as though the guest were speaking Chinese."Dinner?" he asks. "Dinner? We don't have dinner here any more."He walks over to one of the kitchen cabinets, where some newspaper clippings have been tacked. He takes down a coupon for Italian specials at a Severna Park restaurant.This is what he and the three kids have been eating since Linda started campaigning, Brian Gilligan says.

It is not enough to have faith; you must also have the courage to risk action on that faith, to risk failure upon that faith: the faith that one person can make a difference and that each of us must try. - Mayor Martin O'Malley This may be the essence of Martin Joseph O'Malley's campaign for governor. The Democratic candidate has issue papers and television commercials and bus tours, of course. But his argument for wresting control of government from Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is based on a far more ambitious view of what government should be. He boils it down to this: We're all in it together.

His golden days as Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor have passed, but state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer won't walk away from a career in public service. Schaefer, 80, plans to announce tonight that he is seeking re-election as the state's revenue collector and fiscal guardian. Reflecting his status as an elder statesman of Maryland Democratic politics, no challenger from either party has made plans to run against him. "You never finish in public life," he said yesterday. "There's always a challenge."

The war in Iraq has served to remind Americans that the rest of the world looks at them - and their motives - in many ways. The Pew Global Attitudes Project, which has been polling people from around the world on a variety of issues, finds that fear of and hostility toward the United States have been growing in a number of countries. In an effort to explore some of the differences in worldview, the Brookings Institution, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press organized a conference in Washington last month on the subject "God and Foreign Policy: The Religious Divide Between the U.S. and Europe."

In the most recent installment of the ongoing series, Nannygate, we were presented with a bizarre, new twist in the plot.It seems that although Judge Kimba Wood, last week's failed contender for the job of Attorney General, didn't have the "Zoe Baird problem," she nonetheless had a "problem."Call it Bunnygate.In this shocking new development we learn that Kimba Wood, who withdrew her name from consideration for the A.G. position, had a secret past.We learned this when some unidentified sources at the White House -- responding to Wood's withdrawal -- took it upon themselves to leak some decades-old information from her personal files.

Baltimore used to be a town of colorful public characters. One of them, my father, passed away 40 years ago today. Sam Shapiro was often described as a "perennial" candidate - for mayor in 1967 and 1971 and House of Representatives in 1968 and 1970 - and a political gadfly. His attention-getting campaign schemes included handing out bagged live goldfish tagged with "I'm Fishing For Your Vote" in 1967, holding a 50-cent-a-plate testimonial dinner at Polock Johnny's on The Block in 1971 - advertising it on a sign affixed to City Hall - and other inter-election capers and hijinks.

In a post earlier today on the anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species , I casually grouped creationsts among hysterics about the Obama re-election and other individuals who do not appear to be wired to code. I may not have done them justice. Also today, at the Chronicle of Higher Education , one can find a sober article by Adam Laats that explores the difficulties that supporters of evolution in dealing with creationists. In short, he says, caricaturing creationists is not productive. Take one, the Hon. Paul C. Broun Jr., whom the good people of Georgia have dispatched to the United States House of Representatives.

Alfred J. Lipin, a former Anne Arundel County hardware store owner turned Democratic politician who served in both the House of Delegates and state Senate, died Friday of a heart attack at Hanover Hospital in Hanover, Pa. The lifelong Glen Burnie resident was 92. He was born and raised in Pasadena at Lipin's Corner, where his parents owned and operated a combination grocery store and gas station. After graduating from Glen Burnie High School in 1938, he attended the University of Baltimore for three years.

You quoted one of the participants in last week's National Day of Prayer event in Bel Air as saying that "this is like patriotism and spiritual work combined" ("Dozens gather in Bel Air to observe National Day of Prayer", May 6). The singing of the National Anthem and "America the Beautiful" at the Bel Air event highlighted the quasi-religious character of American patriotism. The "One-hundred Percent American" campaign of the World War I era unleashed a wave of enforced conformity that, ironically, shredded the Bill of Rights.

There were hats, of course, straw boaters at the aquarium and Preakness-worthy confections in Mount Vernon. Then there was the quirkier haberdashery, like a purple top hat one man in Federal Hill swept off as he bowed with a flourish when William Donald Schaefer's casket passed by. There were tribal shout-outs — "Edgewood Street!" one guy kept booming, except he wasn't on Edgewood Street but just proud to hail from it — and old campaign buttons and faded photos and, most of all, memories hauled out of the collective basement of a city that almost pathologically hoards them.

Significant dates in William Donald Schaefer's half-century in politics: 1950: Schaefer, a graduate of the University of Baltimore law school, opens downtown practice. Runs unsuccessfully for the House of Delegates from West Baltimore. 1954: Fails again to win seat in House of Delegates. 1955: Wins campaign for Baltimore City Council. 1967: Runs citywide and is elected City Council president, serving with Mayor Thomas J. D'Alesandro III. 1968: Helps direct National Guard to quell riots after the killing of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 1971: Wins Democratic primary for mayor with 56 percent of vote against three candidates, easily wins general election.

Dr. Aris T. Allen, who vaulted so many obstacles in his life as a laborer, medical doctor and legislator, confronted in the winter of 1991 a most formidable foe: terminal prostate cancer. And when he heard the diagnosis, he seized control of his fate in his own way.News of his suicide on Feb. 8 came hard on the heels of his latest accomplishment in a life of achievement. Three months before, the 80-year-old Allen had completed his political comeback by winning a House of Delegates seat in Anne Arundel County's 30th District, becoming the lone black Republican in the General Assembly.

A number of men in public life are talking publicly these days about their prostate cancer -- a disease that until recently few men wanted to discuss, and many agree the time for public airing is overdue.Details on Page 1C

As he prepared to resign his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, Gen. George Washington traveled to Annapolis and while staying at Mann's Tavern, put his thoughts on paper. His Dec. 23, 1783 address to Congress, which was then meeting in the Old Senate Chamber in what is today the State House, concluded with a farewell to public life. Preparing to resign his commission as the Continental Army's commander in chief, Gen. George Washington put his thoughts on paper while staying at Mann's Tavern in Annapolis.

In his first interview since a photo surfaced showing him smoking from a marijuana pipe, Michael Phelps said yesterday that the intense public scrutiny has him contemplating whether he will swim in the 2012 Olympics. Phelps, who said that he "clearly made a mistake" and that the past week has been both embarrassing and uncomfortable for him, spoke with The Baltimore Sun inside Meadowbrook Aquatic Center after finishing his daily workout. While he still has goals he wants to achieve in the sport, he said, he's going to discuss it with his family and his coach, Bob Bowman.